It is known in the art to support a freely oscillating, horizontally rotating washing machine by at least two spring legs or struts which are disposed on either side of a vertical plane which contains the horizontal axis of rotation. Each of the spring struts includes a telescope assembly, one of whose elements is connected to the washing machine whereas the other is attached to a suitable base. A helical spring surrounding one or the other of the telescope elements provides the elastic restoring force. In a spring support described in the British Pat. No. 1,123,208, there is described a spring support strut which has proved to be so unexpectedly popular as to be used in an extremely large number of commercially available washing machines. In this known spring strut, the upper guide rod moves in a guide sleeve which serves at the same time as a friction damper. The guide sleeve or bushing is attached to the upper end of a tube which receives the guide rod when the spring strut is compressed. The spring itself is supported on an annular shoulder on the guide sleeve in the upper region of the tube.
One of the disadvantages of this known construction is that the axial path available for the spring support strut is relatively small. Furthermore, it has been found that the above-described construction is capable of some simplification.